Let's All Go to the Movies

Since our daughter signed us up for Blockbuster On-line, I have seen more movies in the last six weeks than the previous three years, I think. This sevice works very well for us; I list the ones I want, they are sent in serial fashion and then I have two ways to return them: I can mail them in their postage-paid envelopes, or I can return the DVD's to a Blockbuster store and then I get to pick out a free DVD! The problem is, while my favorite TV programs are still playing new shows and finales, the time available for viewing DVD's is short. Until summer break comes, the DVD's are stacked high and I get overwhelmed at the number and choices available to me!

I saw "The Holiday" with Cameron Diaz, Cate Winslett, Jack Black and Jude Law. I expected it to be a complete chick flick (and it is) but it had more merit than usual. One of the characters is played by Eli Wallach and he gives a charming and excellent portrayal of a man once revered in Hollywood, who is now aging and well past his prime (more so in his own mind). The relationship between him and the character played by Cate is very touching.

Mr. kenju started watching with me, but he retired to the bedroom TV when (in his opinion) the plot took a turn for the worse. I admit it is implausible, but not impossible, for a woman to have sex almost immediately with a man she has just met (and not for money). I begged him to remember it was just a movie, after all......LOL

Jack Black's character was one I could be sympathetic with, and I liked both him and his role more than I expected. Jude Law actually played an upstanding/moral person in this one......very different from the guy he was in the last movie I saw. I can't remember the name of it - but he was a total cad! (Life imitates art, here or maybe vice-versa).

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I also saw "The Hours", with Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. I think I'd have been better prepared for this one had I read "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf before viewing the movie. The plot follows the three main characters, who each inhabit a different time period. One is the author of Mrs. Dalloway, one is a woman who is reading "Mrs. Dalloway" and one is........I forget. I should probably read that book and then watch the DVD again......LOL. The three characters pop-up in the movie one after the other, and so quickly that I hardly had time to process the information from one and think about how it fitted in with the others. Each of the actresses did an excellent job, as they always do, but the story line bounced around too much for me.

This afternoon, I am going to watch "Pan's Labyrinth", and I hope it is as good as some of the reviews I read online. I will be sure to let you know if it isn't!

Edit: Pan's Labyrinth was well worth the two hours. Aside from some violence (during which I always shut my eyes), it was an interesting story. It takes place in 1944 in Spain. I believe it would behoove me to have seen it in the theater, as I think a large screen would be preferable.